Our daughter was placed on Child Protection last year under the category of neglect, concerns had come about regrading lack of understanding of her chronic illness but her Paediatrician (who has no concerns) wasn't contacted by Childrens Services until the initial conference took place. Once on Child Protection it took 9 months to come off it and it was admitted to us that they hadn't followed their own procedures and failings had taken place.
What we are concerned about now are the consequences of the Section 47. Children's Services say they have been in touch with DBS who say that based on the information they hold nothing would be disclosed if we had checks done but needless to say we don't have much trust in what Children's Services say. What we would like to know for reassurance sake is what information on us is out there. We have been in touch with DBS regarding FOI and they say that if we requested a subject access request they would could only release information if we'd applied for a check, if we'd never applied for a check we'd need to contact the Police. Do the Police hold the details of the Child Protection? Is this something that is going to be on our records for ever?

Welcome to the Parents’ Discussion board and thank you for your post. I am sorry to hear of the difficulties that you and your family have experienced and that your daughter has a chronic illness.

It sounds as if there was late engagement by children’s services of your daughter’s paediatrician and some admission by children’s services that there had been failings in the case. However, from what you say it does appear that the child protection plan remained in place for 9 months or until the 2nd review child protection conference was held, after which I imagine a child in need plan was made instead.

You are worried about what information continues to be held by different agencies about the child protection plan that was in place for your daughter during this time.

You are reluctant to accept what children’s services have told you about what information would be shared under a Disclosure Barring Service (DBS) check. Have children’s services provided you with written confirmation of their discussion with the DBS? If not, I would suggest that you ask them to do so. You have also been in touch with the DBS directly and they have answered your query about checks from their perspective.

You want to find out more about what details the Police hold and for how long.

The police have a duty to safeguard children. As the child protection process is multi-agency the police would have been involved and represented at the initial child protection conference and would have been updated of the decision of the subsequent review conferences e.g. when the plan continued and when it ended.

Your local police will have a data protection officer and you can probably access online their procedures and policies about data protection, access to personal data, freedom of information and information sharing. The child abuse and investigation unit is the specialist police unit which specifically deals with child protection. You can contact the police directly stating clearly what information you want from them and why.

You may also find it helpful to look at the Information Commissioner (ICO) website which explains how to request information from the police both in relation to personal date and freedom of information and it provides links to the relevant police websites. The ICO also has a helpline should you need it.

I hope this is helpful. I am sure this whole experience has been difficult and I hope that you and your family will able to move forward now. If you have any queries about children’s services you are welcome to post again or ring our Freephone helpline on 0808 8010366 Mon- Friday 9.30 – 3.00 to speak to an adviser.